Single-use grocery-style bags are commonly used to transport various goods. Conventional single-use grocery-style bags include single-use paper bags and single-use plastic bags. Single-use paper bags are typically made of wood pulp sourced from trees or recycled materials. Wood pulp sourced from trees is typically preferred to wood pulp sourced from recycled materials because of its comparatively greater strength and ultimate carrying capacity. However, sourcing wood pulp from trees is time consuming because of the long drying period required. In addition, while source trees are a renewable resource that can be replenished, the demand for single-use grocery-style bags makes replenishment impracticable. As a consequence, single-use paper bags have largely given way to single-use plastic bags.
Single-use plastic bags are typically made of polyethylene sourced from petroleum or petroleum byproducts. While source petroleum is readily available today, it is a non-renewable resource that cannot be replenished. Yet, the demand for single-use plastic bags is nothing short of extraordinary. In the United States, approximately 100 billion single-use plastic bags are used and discarded every year. Worldwide, approximately 1 trillion single-use plastic bags are used and discarded every year.
From an environmental perspective, the accumulation of discarded single-use plastic bags presents a number of challenges. According to a United Nations Environment Programme study, approximately 10 percent of the single-use plastic bags made each year end up in the ocean. Approximately 70 percent of those single-use plastic bags that end up in the ocean make their way to the ocean floor, where conditions are such that they prevent the single-use plastic bags from biodegrading. Even if single-use plastic bags are discarded in conditions suitable for biodegrading, they can take up to 1000 years to fully degrade and the process can produce toxic chemicals that may enter and contaminate the food chain or water supply.